Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 13:48:50 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Felley Subject: DC birds on the Mall, 4/30 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Here's the lunchtime walk report, for Constitution Gardens and the DC Veteran's Memorial. The DC Veteran's Memorial was crawling with migrants, but (?unfortunately?), almost all of these were Yellow- rumped Warblers. New to the Mall this year were Blue- headed Vireo (1), American Redstart (1) and Worm-eating Warbler (1). Constitution Gardens was also crawling with migrants, but most of these were White-throated Sparrows, gorging on elm seeds. In fact, many were up in the trees, eating the seeds before they fell. With them were lots of Chipping Sparrows, as well as more Yellow-rumped Warblers. New to the Mall this year was a Veery. Finally, I was able to observe the 'predator hierarchy' (so often illustrated by the line of sequentially larger fish, each one preparing to eat the one in front): A crow (sp?) was attacking a squirrel that was threatening its nest, while grackles and starlings kicked up a fuss. Further on, I watched a grackle chase a crow away from its territory. Life isn't easy out in the real world! Jim Jim Felley Smithsonian Institution irmss668@sivm.si.edu ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================